Peter Fernandes was of Goan descent – his family having come to Southern Rhodesia in 1914. Peter was a regular visitor to the Chudy home from early 50’s. Peter was Ellen’s generation (4 years Ellen’s junior). He died at the age of 83 in 2009.
Peter was A-list advertising photographer with the best equipped studio in town, in a period which now seems quaint in photo terms – but Rhodesia in those days was rife with petty racism and underlined by more troubling and systematic discrimination below its smiling sunny surface. At that time brown skinned people were expected to enter or be served ‘at the back entrance’.
Peter and members of his family broke the petty color bar of the day by sheer strength of character and self confidence. Not only did Peter end up hanging with the ‘powerful and beautiful people’ in town (such as they were), he was always to be seen as gallery openings top tier events. He worked with the best ad agencies and befriended top level international pro photographers – often visiting them on overseas visits.
Peter was a significant inspiration to Ellen’s son Philip who went on to become a highly technical advertising and fine art photographer in London.
Peter counted the famous Yosuph Karsh (Karsh of Ottowa) as a friend – he having photographed H.M. Barbour of national department store fame in Peter’s studio. Kash was premiere photographer of famous people, always shooting them on 8×10″ film (18x24cm). His most famous photos. Peter also visited the top advertising photographers of the day in London.
Peter was assigned to cover visits by the Royals and foreign dignitaries such as Haile Selassie who visited Nyasaland during the Federation period. Most of Peter’s negative library has unfortunately been lost, but some prints still exist. Peter photographed David Chudy on occasion and most if not all ‘properly studio-lit’ photos of David’s Sculpture were his.
Starting in years in which international sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia with the Ian Smith unilateral declaration of independence from Britain (UDI), the economy of the country faltered. It continued its spiral under Robert Mugabe. Film was hard to get in the country, not least large format film which Peter was equipped to work with. Advertising faltered and Peter’s career along with it. He talked always of photographing street people in Salisbury (Harare) and it never happed. In a tribute to Peter, Ellen’s son Philip shot a range of such photos in 1974 – which after years languishing unprinted in negative sleeves was recently digitized and can be viewed here.
These hopefully give a glimpse of Peter’s downtown world.
As can be seen below – Peter was also friends with Nirmal and Premaly Singh. Nirmal is in 3 of the photos
The Youtube video is an interview and tribute to Peter in an old age home in Harare is below.